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{plain}In high school, you know, I really started to enjoy the sciences, and that's when I started thinking about doing something with the hard sciences.
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During my Sophomore year I connected with Breck Bowden who helped me acquire a research position up in Alaska,
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and I was working both on his project, but then I also had my own individual project.
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I was at a field station with anywhere from 50 to 100 other scientists.
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You're practically applying everything that you're learning.
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You're constantly thinking; you're just analyzing everything.
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And then you're surrounded by all these other people who love doing that.
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I presented my project at a conference this past summer up in Vancouver, so that was a great opportunity because I got to see that side of it too, which is another big aspect of it.
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Research is one of those things that a lot of people talk about that they might like,
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but you don't really know if you're going to like it until you do it, and so I got up there and did it, I saw what it's like and I really enjoyed it.
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A lot of it was because of the faculty here.
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I was able to get all of those experiences that now have really helped me shape what I plan on doing afterward, and that really helped solidify a lot of my plans.
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